What appears to be a very evenly matched field of eight older horses takes to the gate in Saturday\u2019s feature race at Vermont in the $65,000 SHIN BROOK Challenge Stakes. The event will be contested on the turf course at a distance of a mile and 5\/16.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>The field in order of postposition, with early betting odds:<\/P> \u00a0 MAD AXE MAN II <\/B>(19 4-4-6\u00a0 <\/SPAN>$150,109)) [2\/1] The 4-year-old early betting favorite is coming off a second place finish in the YOUR COVER STAKES.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He has recorded previous SP ratings of 100+, but all of these have been at a slightly shorter distance than today.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>His only previous lifetime attempt at a distance at least equivalent to today\u2019s race was a second place allowance run.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>While still looking for his first stakes win, he did finish third in a Grade III event earlier this year.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Racing for owner\/breeder sdmf<\/I>, he is sired by RED RANSOM and will be ridden by this tracks leading jockey, S. Gravina (14%).\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He prefers to run up front and should be one of the early pace setters here, but question is can he hold at this distance.<\/P> \u00a0 GREENMANTLE <\/B>(13 5-3-0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>$123,546) [10\/1] This lightly raced 4-year-old sired by THEATRICAL races for owner\/breeder ns<\/I>w and is the only stakes winner produced so far by the multiple stakes winning mare GREEN FUTURE.<\/I>\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He is enjoying a breakout year with two wins and a second in 5 stakes outings.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>His lifetime best SP of 100 came over 12 furlongs so could like this distance, although more recent times this year indicate he may have a harder time with this field.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Ridden by B Langhorne (11%), his preference seems to be to settle in just off the pace in preparation for a big stretch finish.<\/P> \u00a0 BRIGADIER ROCK <\/B>(43 6-7-8\u00a0 <\/SPAN>$144,566) [5\/1] Having made a career at the allowance level, this 6-year-old looks for his first stakes win today, with four previous stakes attempts in 43 career outings.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Sired by the producer of multiple graded stakes winners, ROCK OF GIBRALTOR, he is one of two in this field racing for owner\/breeder hills.\u00a0 <\/SPAN><\/I>Not blessed with an abundance of early speed, his best outings usual come from mid-pack or further back. Jockey M Stearns (13%) gets the reins.<\/P> \u00a0 GREY STORMY DAY <\/B>(19 3-5-2\u00a0 <\/SPAN>$143,036) [12\/1] The other half of the two-horse entry out of the hills <\/I>stable, this 4-year-old by DAYLAMI is another seeking his first stakes win.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He has a lot of experience at this and further distances, but past performances and SP ratings seem to indicate he may need a step up in performance to run with this field.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Jockey L. L. Ahrens (13%) gets the assignment and will look to bring him from off pace. <\/I><\/P> \u00a0 STAR POTENTIAL <\/B>(22 5-1-4 $93,100) [8\/1] This 4-year-old has won two of four allowance starts, including last time out, since being claimed for $35,000 by current owner jodggtx <\/I>at the end of last year.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Sired by ALDEBARAH, he makes his lifetime debut at the stakes level today with jockey Z Ruzek (8%) and stretches out for an extra half-furlong over longest previous outing.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>While he\u2019s shown glimpses of early speed, best efforts seem to come from off the pace.<\/P> \u00a0 ANIMAL INSTINCT <\/B>(8 2-4-2 $55,469) [5\/1] This 4-year-old hasn\u2019t missed the board in only 8 lifetime starts. With outstanding breeding (A. P. INDY x KRIS S. x NATIVE DANCER) he did not get his first start until late in his 3-year-old season.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Coming off a third last time out in his first stakes attempt for owner\/breeder lenny12<\/I>, he appears primed for a big effort here.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Jockey G Bungard (5%) will look to have him at or very near the front from the start.<\/P> \u00a0 THE TWO <\/B>(24 6-2-4\u00a0 <\/SPAN>$134,352) [6\/1] Coming off a dismal outing last time out when he finished 7th<\/SUP> and well back in the S. DANCE Handicap Stakes, this 5-year-old looks to rebound today for owner\/breeder mybabay <\/I>with jockey M Jolly (7%) up.\u00a0 <\/SPAN><\/I>He is sired by ALBERT THE GREAT, who has produced only two stakes winners.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Although he has a lifetime best SP of 100 over 11 furlongs, all five previous stakes attempts have been unproductive. <\/P> \u00a0 FREAKISH PEDRO <\/B>(23 5-4-5 $220,650) [4\/1]\u00a0While he has won previously at the stakes level, the 4-year-old has not attempted that level yet this year.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Very consistent performer up to 9 furlongs, he may not like the extra distance today.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>The second RED RANSOM sired entry in this field, his dam AMY BAND has produced two graded stakes winners.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Racing for the turbo12 <\/I>stable and ridden by C Wolff (10%), he could have trouble if unable to get a clean break in order to run near the front.<\/P> \u00a0 After picking the runner up again last week, I hope to improve by one spot this week:\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Not a lot of early speed here, which may allow the favorite and early leader MAX THE MAN<\/B> to run off and hide, especially if he doesn\u2019t get much early pressure from the likes of FREAKISH PEDRO<\/B> and ANIMAL INSTINCT<\/B>.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Most likely late runs should come from BRIGADIER ROCK<\/B> and GREEN MANTLE<\/B>.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>I\u2019ve got to go with the favorite here, MAX THE MAN<\/B>, with GREEN MANTLE<\/B> to place and ANIMAL INSTINCT<\/B> to show.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Evenly Matched Field to Contest in Vermont<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}